I don't know why they suddenly went from the strategy of cultivating customer loyalty to treating the customers like garbage in an attempt to drive them away from the company and the product, but I can say that their strategy has worked.

I'm done with TiVo.

I'm getting another DVR. Congrats to TiVo for making me hate them more than my much-despised cable company.

Talk about over-reacting...

Give them a chance to get back after the holidays with a full staff. I look at it this way, this would be the biggest PR nightmare imaginable for them if they ignored this. Whatever went wrong, it just went wrong at the worst possible time.

But if this problem still exists in another couple of weeks or if they try to pass the blame to the phone company...

I'd hook up an external modem, then sniff the communication between the Tivo and modem using Frontline's SerialTest Async. It will decode PPP for me as well. Then I can see if I'm getting anything back from the Tivo server. I have the tools, just not the time.

For those with analog external modems, look for the "CD" indicator. If it comes on, it's probably not a modem issue. I still haven't had a chance to analyze my line, but it's fiber from the end of my street back to the CO (FIOS is in the neighborhood but I don't have it yet). I don't think they halved my bandwidth, and I'm having some problems. But if the Rx light on the modem never comes on, I can't completely rule out a issue with the modems on Tivo's end.

Do a Google Search for daily call failed service not available and look at the deal database forum. There is a lot more info you may be interested in. Wireshark has been used and it showed that when sending the Tivo Service Logs there was no response from the Tivo Server. Other people have indicated that this has happened in the past when transparent proxies were put in place by some ISPs and the S1 Tivos use strange http requests with no Content length header fields and these transparent proxies get confused with the requests. They were able to change a Ident.itcl file in the Tivo to add a Dummy Content-Length header and it worked for them, but the new 3.0 Tivo software no longer uses this file so this doesn't work anymore.

It seems for a lot of people if they clear out the Tivo Service logs they get successful downloads, but it doesn't appear to work for everyone.

Do a Google Search for daily call failed service not available and look at the deal database forum. There is a lot more info you may be interested in. Wireshark has been used and it showed that when sending the Tivo Service Logs there was no response from the Tivo Server. Other people have indicated that this has happened in the past when transparent proxies were put in place by some ISPs and the S1 Tivos use strange http requests with no Content length header fields and these transparent proxies get confused with the requests. They were able to change a Ident.itcl file in the Tivo to add a Dummy Content-Length header and it worked for them, but the new 3.0 Tivo software no longer uses this file so this doesn't work anymore.

It seems for a lot of people if they clear out the Tivo Service logs they get successful downloads, but it doesn't appear to work for everyone.

Since I only understood about 5 words in your post, there's probably no way for a non techie like myself to clear the service logs, right?

TivoWebPlus can be used to clear them and it's easy to setup...but clearing the logs does nothing for my problem...

Thanks for the update, I was afraid that might be the case for some. My mom's SVR2000 has not made a successful test call (or Daily call) since 12/03/2008, so I am pretty sure if I were to get TivoWeb on it and cleared the logs its not going to help either.

Earlier I posted that my Series 1 seemed to be have recovered while I was out of town over Christmas. It hasn't. It fails a significant percentage of calls. Enough get through that it is keeping at least a week of guide data though which is good.

I suspect TiVo's reaction to Series 1 calls failing will be bigger than the suggestion reaction. Suggestions require code changes to something that hasn't been actively developed for years. I have had to revive projects that have been moth-balled for years. It isn't easy. The original developers are supposed to make sure everything is saved so that it can be updated in the future. But something is always forgotten, so it takes a lot of time just to duplicate the last release build. Then you have to find and fix the problem.

The dial in issue sounds like a server side issue. Though they could have a common date based bug on the units, but that seems less likely. So it should be easier to fix.

For me it probably won't matter either way. Comcast just announced they are moving a lot of analog cable channels to digital (Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA area on March 18th). Very few of the shows that my Series 1 records will still be available to it after the switch. I'm planning on shutting it down then and just use my Series 3.

The Series 1 has worked fine for 7 years (August 2001), I'll be sad to see it go. Though I knew digital cable would do it in given time.

The Series 1 has worked fine for 7 years (August 2001), I'll be sad to see it go. Though I knew digital cable would do it in given time.

- Dan

The Series 1 can control a digital cable STB perfectly. Mine has been going since July 1999. They need just one more software update to handle the daylight savings change and to control digital over the air STBs. Now, it appears that the guide data server has changed too, so maybe this will be the impetus to get it all done.

I have a Series 1 with a brand new TiVoNet card installed. The TiVoNet can connect about 1 in 20 times, and my modem connects 1 in 3 times, so I guess I am luckier than most of you out there.

By the way, does anyone have success going from a TiVoNet card through a wireless bridge device? (like the Linksys WGA54G)

I'm using a Turbonet adapter in my Philips Series 1 through a Netgear WGPS-606 wireless bridge. Note that I'm using this unsubscribed (manual recordings for my son's game room) so it's just setting the time and date with the calls.

Just took a look this morning and my Sony has completed a call all by itself since I last forced a call a few days ago. Whether this means anything or not, I don't know, but this is the first time this has occurred in over 3 weeks.

Do a Google Search for daily call failed service not available and look at the deal database forum.

I already did that. But there is no way to clear the log files out unless you are willing to open up your Tivo. Plus, that is just one data point. It would help to get a few more data points and less speculation.

No one knows why deleting the log files works or why it only works for some people. Unless deleting the log files causes the S1 to skip the "zip log files and send them to homebase" step that the server on the other end is now getting stuck on. But that must not be the only step it is getting stuck on, or it would have worked for everybody.

I still think that it's not a modem carrier problem, it's a change to the Tivo server. We can invent work-arounds if we want, but Tivo ultimately has to fix it on their end.

Also, I have another "problem" -- my last two calls were successful. It'll be tough for me to record the problem if I don't have it.

Yesterday, TiVo completed the call successfully on its own. For a week prior to that, I was babysitting it, and getting it to complete after 3 or 4 attempts (which yielded both "Service Unavailable" and "Call Interrupted"). I'm not convinced that the problem is fixed, but it does seem to be getting better.

Others who have said they ran out of program data - has yours completed recently, either on its own or by manually trying over and over again?

Update: My Series 1 Sony has been making about 50% of it's calls successfully. Enough calls are being completed to keep the guide date updated. A problem still exists as 50% of the calls are still failing.

Interesting -- I had actually moved back from a turbonet attachment to dialup phonecalls because I was getting repeated failures more or less as above when connecting via my network. With my network connection, it was (suddenly, after years of success) rare to actually COMPLETE the call 2 days in a row, and my TiVo would begin to complain about running out of Guide Data. However, while dialup phonecalls would still occasionally drop, they would "never" fail more than 2 days in a row, and my TiVo would stay happy.

I'll bet you can see where this is going...

However, today after reading this post I checked, and I'd failed on dialup 3 days in a row. So I forced a call, which again failed--like yours, during an HTTP transfer. So I forced yet another call--which this time succeeded.

Coincidence? Don't know...

I guess the next thing to try is to go back to a network connection and see if that is any more or less "stable".

I still wonder if this is a situation where, from time to time, the TiVo service is getting overwhelmed and is "load-shedding" by dropping or refusing connections...

Worked again today. This is the second (at least) straight call it has made by itself just like the good old days.

Is it really fixed? Don't know but it looks like it for now anyway.

Did the TiVo crew fix this under the radar? Or did something just get out of whack and then back "in whack" by itself? We'll probably never know, but if is really is fixed, let me give the company a big